In MRI technology, a space stored with magnetic resonance signals is called K-space, which is a Fourier transform space. MRI signals, which are obtained via MRI scan, are filled in the K-space. A magnetic resonance image can be obtained via an inverse Fourier transform of the K-space data.
Motion interference has always been a headache to the MRI imaging quality. This is even more the case for scans of certain parts of body, such as heart, abdomen. Body breathing or heart beating may result in motion artifacts and thereby affecting the MRI imaging quality.
Currently, there are some approaches for eliminating motion artifacts in MRI, such as PROPELLER approach, which may to some extent mitigate the motion interference to the imaging and remove the motion artifacts. However, these approaches relates to motion of rigid bodies in a plane. For scans of some parts of the body, motions of non-rigid bodies or out-of-plane motions are the main factors affecting the imaging quality. However, these approaches are unable to solve these problems.
There are also some other approaches, such as flow compensation technique, which may be used to compensate the artifacts caused by the blood flow. However, these approaches are limited to applications under certain special circumstances (i.e., artifacts caused by the blood flow).
Overall, the existing approaches for eliminating the motion artifacts in magnetic resonance imaging are limited.
Accordingly, there is a need for a new method and apparatus for eliminating motion artifacts in magnetic resonance imaging so as to restrain the motion artifacts caused under various circumstances and thus improving the quality of magnetic resonance imaging.